The United Nations on Thursday approved the creation of an UN inquiry team to investigate crimes by ISIL in Iraq, in a drive to bring perpetrators of atrocities to justice.
Iraqi officials welcomed the Security Council's unanimous adoption of a resolution that would see the establishment of the team led by a special UN adviser.
Under the framework, the evidence of crimes collected by the investigators will be used to try the alleged perpetrators in an Iraqi court, but the resolution also grants the authority to prosecute the crimes around the globe in certain circumstances.
“This resolution will bring about justice that so many Iraqis hope for and it could help to lead to lasting peace,” said Britain's Middle East minister Alistair Burt, who sponsored the motion. “That peace can only be secured once Iraq has overcome sectarian divisions and achieved the national unity that its people deserve.
“Justice and reconciliation are essential requirements.”
Ibrahim Jaafari, Iraq's foreign minister told The National that Iraq had assembled a mass of evidence of killings, much of it recorded on mobile phones.
“The crimes that were committed in Iraq are clear and obvious as they were documented on video tapes,” he said. “The faces of those who were responsible are on tapes and there is no greater evidence that burning a child alive in front of a camera.”
There was delight that the resolution had been passed unanimously. “This is one instance in which the system is working exactly as it should and it is a very good thing for once,” said one official involved in the effort to establish the inquiry team.
Handling the material, sifting through the footage, establishing investigative leads, corroborating activities and verifying its authenticity is a formidable undertaking. Officials hope that as ISIL loses its grip on Iraqi territory the focus will shift to targeting its fighters.
Among other crimes, the extremist group has been accused of mass executions of Iraqi troops and citizens as well as the abduction and sexual enslavement of thousands of women from Iraq's Yazidi community.
The UN team will seek to recruit experts in evidence collation and war crimes investigations to ensure that Iraqi prosecutors and foreign courts — should suspects be captured abroad — are able to act on the material that has been seized.
Personnel will consist of both international and domestic experts who will work “on equal footing”, with an initial mandate of two years.
Baghdad insisted that the UN investigators would operate with full respect for the sovereignty of Iraq and its jurisdiction over crimes committed in its territory.
The resolution states that evidence of crimes collected and stored by the team in Iraq should be for eventual use in fair and independent criminal proceedings conducted by competent national-level courts, with the relevant Iraqi authorities as the primary intended recipient.
Other member states can request the team to collect evidence of acts committed by ISIL on their territory, but only with the approval of the Security Council, which may request the secretary general to submit separate terms of reference.
The new body will operate independently of the International Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria, which was created by a General Assembly resolution in December despite fierce resistance from Russia. As a permanent member Russia has blocked all attempts by the Security Council to pursue criminal investigations in Syria because of the potential legal threat to Bashar Al Assad’s regime.
Catherine Marchi-Uhel, a French judge, was appointed to lead the Syrian mechanism in July and officials said they hoped that the Iraqi operation could be up and running within a few months.
Mr Burt said that the crimes in the former Yugoslavia, like the massacre of Muslim men in Srebrenica, were first investigated by a UN inquiry before the tribunal at the Hague was established. “The painstaking efforts of collecting the evidence of what had happened, linking what had happened to individuals whose actions could be prosecuted actually worked,” he said
The primary focus of the Iraq inquiry will be into war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Ambassadors acknowledged that the team and their Iraqi counterparts would face a challenge in preserving the huge amount of evidence of ISIL crimes committed on Iraqi territory.
Britain announced after the vote that it would contribute £1 million (Dh5m) to establish the UN investigative team.
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JAPANESE GRAND PRIX INFO
Schedule (All times UAE)
First practice: Friday, 5-6.30am
Second practice: Friday, 9-10.30am
Third practice: Saturday, 7-8am
Qualifying: Saturday, 10-11am
Race: Sunday, 9am-midday
Race venue: Suzuka International Racing Course
Circuit Length: 5.807km
Number of Laps: 53
Watch live: beIN Sports HD
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Specs
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Types of policy
Term life insurance: this is the cheapest and most-popular form of life cover. You pay a regular monthly premium for a pre-agreed period, typically anything between five and 25 years, or possibly longer. If you die within that time, the policy will pay a cash lump sum, which is typically tax-free even outside the UAE. If you die after the policy ends, you do not get anything in return. There is no cash-in value at any time. Once you stop paying premiums, cover stops.
Whole-of-life insurance: as its name suggests, this type of life cover is designed to run for the rest of your life. You pay regular monthly premiums and in return, get a guaranteed cash lump sum whenever you die. As a result, premiums are typically much higher than one term life insurance, although they do not usually increase with age. In some cases, you have to keep up premiums for as long as you live, although there may be a cut-off period, say, at age 80 but it can go as high as 95. There are penalties if you don’t last the course and you may get a lot less than you paid in.
Critical illness cover: this pays a cash lump sum if you suffer from a serious illness such as cancer, heart disease or stroke. Some policies cover as many as 50 different illnesses, although cancer triggers by far the most claims. The payout is designed to cover major financial responsibilities such as a mortgage or children’s education fees if you fall ill and are unable to work. It is cost effective to combine it with life insurance, with the policy paying out once if you either die or suffer a serious illness.
Income protection: this pays a replacement income if you fall ill and are unable to continue working. On the best policies, this will continue either until you recover, or reach retirement age. Unlike critical illness cover, policies will typically pay out for stress and musculoskeletal problems such as back trouble.
Notable salonnières of the Middle East through history
Al Khasan (Okaz, Saudi Arabia)
Tamadir bint Amr Al Harith, known simply as Al Khasan, was a poet from Najd famed for elegies, earning great renown for the eulogy of her brothers Mu’awiyah and Sakhr, both killed in tribal wars. Although not a salonnière, this prestigious 7th century poet fostered a culture of literary criticism and could be found standing in the souq of Okaz and reciting her poetry, publicly pronouncing her views and inviting others to join in the debate on scholarship. She later converted to Islam.
Maryana Marrash (Aleppo)
A poet and writer, Marrash helped revive the tradition of the salon and was an active part of the Nadha movement, or Arab Renaissance. Born to an established family in Aleppo in Ottoman Syria in 1848, Marrash was educated at missionary schools in Aleppo and Beirut at a time when many women did not receive an education. After touring Europe, she began to host salons where writers played chess and cards, competed in the art of poetry, and discussed literature and politics. An accomplished singer and canon player, music and dancing were a part of these evenings.
Princess Nazil Fadil (Cairo)
Princess Nazil Fadil gathered religious, literary and political elite together at her Cairo palace, although she stopped short of inviting women. The princess, a niece of Khedive Ismail, believed that Egypt’s situation could only be solved through education and she donated her own property to help fund the first modern Egyptian University in Cairo.
Mayy Ziyadah (Cairo)
Ziyadah was the first to entertain both men and women at her Cairo salon, founded in 1913. The writer, poet, public speaker and critic, her writing explored language, religious identity, language, nationalism and hierarchy. Born in Nazareth, Palestine, to a Lebanese father and Palestinian mother, her salon was open to different social classes and earned comparisons with souq of where Al Khansa herself once recited.
The%20Sandman
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Founder: Ayman Badawi
Date started: Test product September 2016, paid launch January 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software
Size: Seven employees
Funding: $170,000 in angel investment
Funders: friends
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
World Cricket League Division 2
In Windhoek, Namibia - Top two teams qualify for the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, which starts on March 4.
UAE fixtures
Thursday, February 8 v Kenya; Friday, February 9 v Canada; Sunday, February 11 v Nepal; Monday, February 12 v Oman; Wednesday, February 14 v Namibia; Thursday, February 15 final
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